The API imperative: Laying the foundation for a well-connected future

As the tide of digitalization keeps rising, the insurance industry faces increasing pressure to modernize. Insurance providers must adopt new technologies to accelerate their digital transformation, provide customer experience 24x7 and build strategic partnerships to maximize value in an ecosystem economy. A key enabler in this transformation is the use of application programming interfaces (APIs), which securely expose and proliferate data—especially across third-party architectures.

“When Crédit Agricole Assurances became MUDUM’s sole shareholder in 2020, the company recognized the need to modernize their business at the core using a scalable integration platform with a future-ready API architecture, since keeping the previous solutions was not suitable for evolution,” explains Mara Ferreira, Head of Data, Technology & Transformation (CIO and CDO) at MUDUM.

At the top of MUDUM’s priority list was the daunting task of separating from their former “sister” insurance company. That meant untangling the complex web of partner and systems integrations and data spread across multiple in-house tools and legacy middleware. “We had a list of requirements in our RFI for various functionalities, security, usability and scalability,” recalls Ferreira.  “We wanted an independent provider with open standards technology that could help us connect our modernized business, fast.”

Key challenges included:

• IT segregation following shareholder restructuring
• Replacing four in-house integration platforms with one unified middleware
• Scaling digital and omnichannel capabilities through real-time communications
• Enabling full architectural integration across internal and external components for a 360-degree customer view
• Harnessing APIs to launch new services with low time-to-market cycles

After evaluating several options, MUDUM shortlisted MuleSoft and IBM. Both offered full-featured integration platforms with API management, but IBM webMethods Hybrid Integration stood out for its ability to access legacy data, a thriving developer portal and a trusted local implementation partner. MUDUM quickly made their decision.

“Together with Findmore Digital,” explains Paulo Sousa, Head of Development at MUDUM, “the team got to work, starting with installation and platform configuration, then moving on to migrating existing interfaces and developing new ones.”

Next came the exciting part: harnessing the full potential of MUDUM’s now-connected enterprise to create a 360-degree customer view and launch new services for third-party monetization. Less than a year into the transformation, there was already a use case for both.

Let’s first look at how the solution enabled smarter claims management.

Claim submission is a critical customer service touchpoint and must be managed efficiently. Through their Claims Transformation Program, MUDUM restructured teams for cross-functional support and introduced new technology capabilities. Before launching their Customer Engagement Center solution (360-degree customer view), claims managers had to navigate several solutions or several options within the same solution to gather customer information. Inbound calls lacked context, making it difficult to personalize service.

Today, claims managers have full context at their fingertips—aggregated customer data, ongoing claims and service histories—enabling faster, more responsive customer service. “Our agents know when the customer last called, and the exact details of ongoing claims,” says Ferreira.

“This has had a huge impact on customer service and drastically reduced the time to provide information to customers. In fact, when the usual December rush at the end of 2022 collided with a stretch of bad weather, claims rolled in. But amazingly, the rate at which requests were answered on the very first call skyrocketed compared to previous years. Our rates jumped from less than 80% to 97%,” shares Vanda Caetano, Customer Service Department Manager. These stats aren’t solely attributable to API management, but they’re “an important piece of the puzzle,” says Ferreira.

Now, let’s focus on MUDUM’s omnichannel journey and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) innovation.

As part of their business transformation and digital omnichannel journey, MUDUM has created new omnichannel insurance packages and made them available through APIs. Through the developer portal, MUDUM’s partners can expose data to third parties—such as other business partners—who can then sell MUDUM services directly through their own platforms. “Take home insurance as an example,” Ferreira explains. “Now end customers can go to third-party websites—online, through a mobile app or into a bank—and get a quote, price or offer. Previously, they needed to visit one of the partner branches or call the direct line to get their final policy. Now, prospects and customers have new digital services like this example,” Sousa adds. “And the short-term plan is to scale and roll services such as this across different insurance types such as motor and health, among others,” concludes Sousa.

MUDUM is just at the beginning of their incredible transformation. They’re continually activating new services and partnerships. IBM is now supporting the company with managed file transfer (MTF) capabilities to trace and log all partner file exchanges. And as for the future, MUDUM isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

“APIs play a huge part in ambitions for MUDUM going forward. We know that there are so many more services and products we can offer, but it’s not just the technology that enables this. If you can’t get the right people in the company on board from the beginning, it’s a non-starter.

Choosing the right integration partner, as well as the right implementer, has been key to getting everyone rowing in the same direction,” concludes Ferreira.

MUDUM (link resides outside of ibm.com) offers a range of non-life insurance products, including home, car and health coverage. Established in 1996, the company became a fully owned subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Assurances in 2020. Crédit Agricole Assurances is Europe’s leading insurance-banking player, operating in 8 countries with over 5,100 employees.